Lawyers and insurers say claims against private-hire cars tend to be harder

The following piece of advice is not going to be pleasing to us motorists: According to lawyers who act for insurers, parties who got into accidents involving private-hire cars operated by companies such as Uber and Grab tend to have a harder time settling their claims. Over the last three years, the number of private-hire cars on Singapore roads has more than tripled to approximately 51,000, and these vehicles are involved in accidents more frequently than other passenger car. According to estimates by major insurers that provide coverage for them, the likelihood for private-hire cars to get into accidents are 30 to 50 percent higher. A.K. Cher, the President of General Insurance Association, said: "These cars are on the road longer than the normal passenger car. Many of them are also driven by very young and inexperienced drivers. And they also rely heavily on their mobile devices for navigation, so (the drivers) can be distracted." Such concerns are not unfounded. Accordingly to figures provided by an insurer vying for Lion City's business, the number of cars under Uber-owned Lion City Rentals grew exponentially from 1,412 last February to 8,676 in November. In the same period, over 2,100 accidents were registered by these vehicles. Close to $10 million in claims were incurred. An underwriter of that insurer said: "It is hard to gauge its accident rate because the fleet has grown so fast. But assuming an average of 5,000 (cars in the fleet), it would translate to a ratio of 40 per cent." The accident rate for taxis and commercial vehicles is around 40% as well.  Whilst Uber declined to comment on the trend, lawyers acting for insurers revealed that they are seeing more cases involving private-hire cars, and claims involving such cases tend to be harder to settle.  According to the law, all private-hire cars must be insured. Their premiums are also higher, a reflection of their risk exposure. Mr Patrick Yeo, a partner at Withers KhattarWong, told The Straits Times that his firm had once took up an injury claims case in which the private-hire driver was actually underage and therefore uninsured. Mr Yeo explained: "In a case of an uninsured private-hire car driver, the damage to the cars involved is also (deemed) uninsured. The owner of the car damaged by the private-hire car will have no recourse against the insurers of the private-hire car. They would have to sue the driver or owner of the private-hire car directly."  Mr Yeo cited another case in which a Grab driver was not covered by the insurance policy because he had accumulated less than two years of driving experience, which is the minimum period stipulated in the insurance policy. Mr Anthony Chey, a partner at RHTLaw Taylor Wessing, shared a case in which a pedestrian was knocked down by an Uber car at a pedestrian crossing in 2015. He said: "The case appeared simple enough as liability was clearly against the vehicle driver. Along the way, I learnt that... the case was delayed because of some policy issues regarding the insurance coverage. The claim, which should have been settled within three months, ended up taking 11 months."  As a rule of thumb, motorists involved in a road accident, however minor, should request for details of the other party's identity card.